Prince Philip frustrated by jewelry clasps

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LONDON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Britain's Prince Philip, at a private viewing of gold and silver accessories, told a jewelry-maker he finds jewelry clasps "absolutely impossible."

Philip told silversmith Jocelyn Burton he has trouble unclasping Queen Elizabeth's necklaces and other adornments.

"Those infernal clasps are absolutely impossible," he said.

"You fiddle with them for hours, then they suddenly come undone and they fall on the floor but you have no idea why," he told Burton while viewing an exhibition of jewelry designs by Burton at Bentley & Skinner in central London, the Evening Standard reported.

"When you try to close them again you find you just can't do it," he said.

Burton agreed clasps can be tricky.

"The art is to make a mechanism which is obvious but invisible but somehow this often seems impossible," she said.

The exhibit features four decades of work by Burton, who has created pieces for large companies as well as British and foreign royal families, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.